Former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg Accused of Deleting Key Emails in Lawsuit

Former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg has been sanctioned by a Delaware judge for allegedly using a personal Gmail account under a pseudonym and deleting emails relevant to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, despite a court order not to.

Sheryl Sandberg, the former Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Meta, is facing legal consequences just days after being criticized by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

According to a report in TechCrunch, a Delaware judge sanctioned Sandberg for allegedly deleting emails that were linked to the infamous Cambridge Analytica scandal.

The case stems from a shareholder lawsuit filed against Sandberg and former Meta board member Jeff Zients in late 2024. The lawsuit accuses them of using personal email accounts to discuss a 2018 lawsuit that alleged Facebook violated privacy laws and fiduciary duties regarding user data.

The plaintiffs claim that Sandberg and Zients deleted emails from their personal accounts despite a court order to preserve them.

The judge found the allegations credible and ruled that Sandberg had used a personal Gmail account under a pseudonym for communication related to the case. The judge also noted inconsistencies in Sandberg’s responses to questions, suggesting she selectively deleted emails instead of relying on an auto-delete function.

As a result, Sandberg’s burden of proof has been raised, and she must now prove her defense with “clear and convincing” evidence, a higher standard than usual. The judge also awarded certain expenses to the plaintiffs.

A spokesperson for Sandberg denied the allegations, stating that “all work emails were preserved on Facebook’s servers.”

The issue is part of a larger controversy involving Meta’s violation of a 2012 Federal Trade Commission (FTC) order, which prohibited the company from sharing user data without consent.

The company has faced significant penalties, including a $5 billion fine in 2019, for violations related to the misuse of data, including selling it to companies like Cambridge Analytica.